5/9/2012: Here’s the agenda for today’s Senate meeting, 3PM in the Knight Library.
With Bob Berdahl we thought we were hiring a caretaker who’d lend a little gravitas to the search for Larivere’s replacement, keep Pernsteiner at bay, and maybe clean up a few of JH’s more obvious problems. I do not understand why, but instead he’s decided to spend a good portion of his short tenure as Interim President tearing down what little remains of UO’s shared governance system.
First, he will waste still more of the Senate’s time fighting the Intercollegiate Athletic Committee’s unanimous request to add the ASUO President as a member. Last Senate meeting he had Dave Hubin and Sonja Runberg waste 40 minutes arguing this should go to the Committee on Committees. It did, they voted for it, now he wants to argue some more. What is Berdahl’s problem with this simple change? It’s trivial compared to what they are doing at Berkeley. In March he implied he might dissolve the IAC.
Then there’s the matter of transparency. Under Richard Lariviere, Dave Hubin cooperated with the Senate Transparency Committee to improve access to public records. The biggest improvement was the $200 fee waiver – ODE story here. The celebratory email sent out by the STC last September, with Hubin’s approval, is here. Under Bob Berdahl, Dave Hubin has drastically cut back the waiver, with no discussion at all with the STC. Sam Stites manages to get some good quotes for his latest ODE story, some of which are even true.
This will be an interesting Senate meeting, in the worst sense. I’ll try and live blog it. If anyone knows what’s really going on with Berdahl, the comments are open.
I don’t know what’s going on with Berdahl, but I do know that the IAC and its now-absentee chair picked this stupid fight with him back in January and won’t let go of it until they have finished discrediting shared governance all on their own. This is one reason that good people turn their backs on the Senate. Happily, I do see from the agenda that Prof. Keyes, who is shrewd, sharp, and evenhanded, has decided to take his marbles and go elsewhere.
http://committees.uoregon.edu/sites/committees.uoregon.edu/files/IAC%20email%20correspondence%20with%20Pres%20Berdahl%20Jan-Mar%202012.pdf
Why is adding the ASUO president to the IAC such a “line in the sand” for Berdahl? Oh, right, it’s athletics.
So, Berdahl’s hostility to the Senate drove Peter and more than half the rest of the faculty into a union?
I’m wondering what notion of shared governance this reflects(, Peter). Should the senate only consider motions that we know the president will sign off on? If so, I’d sure turn my back on the senate.
Maybe I should clarify why I’m not running for the Senate at this point, since people are reading things into it. I’ve lost count, but I think I’ve spent about 10 years in the Senate since 2001, including one year as President and two as VP – so it’s time for some new blood. Also, since the Senate always meets during our regularly scheduled design studios, I’ve had to work around this for ten years, making up studio hours, etc. For some reason this has become more difficult recently, and I’ve had to miss some Senate meetings for studio activities that couldn’t be rescheduled; we need some Senators who don’t have this conflict.
And even if I think some of the issues which may obsess the Senate from time to time are relatively trivial, I don’t think it’s a reason to walk away. It’s important to keep plugging at this imperfect system, which has gotten notably better in recent years, with the new constitution and the new approach to policies. As for my involvement with the union, I see that as a direct extension of my experience in governance, particularly my 6 years on the Senate Budget Committee. I don’t think that governance and the union are oppositional in any way – they can both be ways to advance the faculty’s interests and positions, ultimately for the betterment of the University.
Can’t believe I just wrote a whole UO Matters post without making a joke or insulting anyone. Time to retire.
What do you think happened? Phil Knight made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Berdahl has been clearing out the deadwood, just as UO Matters and many of its readers have been clamouring for. Its tough to realize that the deadwood is in the obsolete governance procedures of the faculty senate, not the JH personel eh!